How do I change the locale in Ubuntu?

mark_alfred · 03-31-2014, 06:51 PM

Hello. I'm using Ubuntu 13.10. During the install I indicated that I was from Canada, so I assumed the locale would be set to en_CA. But everything seems to be en_US (spelling wise). I'm thinking perhaps not many programs accommodate en_CA. Anyway, I'm wondering how I can change the locale (to change the program spellings) to en_GB.

When I used Vector Linux, which is based on Slackware, I simply changed the file /etc/profile.d/lang.sh by commenting out en_US and adding en_GB. I can't find this file in Ubuntu, however. So, does anyone know how I can change the locale? I'm using XFCE.

evo2 · 03-31-2014, 08:57 PM

Hi,

for a system wide change you can reconfigure the locales package. Eg

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

This will generate additional locales and set the default locale (which is kept in /etc/default/locale).

Not sure if xfce4-session provides a built in way to do this on a per user basis but setting the LANG environment variable should do the trick.

Cheers,

Evo2.

PS. The last Ubuntu version that I did this on was 10.04, so things may have changed with 13.10.

widget · 03-31-2014, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo2

Hi,

for a system wide change you can reconfigure the locales package. Eg

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

This will generate additional locales and set the default locale (which is kept in /etc/default/locale).

Not sure if xfce4-session provides a built in way to do this on a per user basis but setting the LANG environment variable should do the trick.

Cheers,

Evo2.

PS. The last Ubuntu version that I did this on was 10.04, so things may have changed with 13.10.

Should work fine. Works under Sid.

mark_alfred · 04-01-2014, 08:27 AM

Okay, I did that, but I'm not sure if it accomplished anything.

Code:

mark@mark-OptiPlex-755:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
[sudo] password for mark: 
Generating locales...
  en_AG.UTF-8... done
  en_AU.UTF-8... done
  en_BW.UTF-8... done
  en_CA.UTF-8... done
  en_DK.UTF-8... done
  en_GB.UTF-8... done
  en_HK.UTF-8... done
  en_IE.UTF-8... done
  en_IN.UTF-8... done
  en_NG.UTF-8... done
  en_NZ.UTF-8... done
  en_PH.UTF-8... done
  en_SG.UTF-8... done
  en_US.UTF-8... up-to-date
  en_ZA.UTF-8... done
  en_ZM.UTF-8... done
  en_ZW.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.
mark@mark-OptiPlex-755:~$

widget · 04-01-2014, 02:14 PM

Well that is interesting. I don't know if you got it right either.

You never did say what you wanted.

evo2 · 04-01-2014, 05:09 PM

Hi,

you may have your minimum debconf priority set too high to be prompted to change the default locale. Try

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow locales

You can change the debconf frontend minimum priority by configuring the debcobf package. Eg

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow debconf

HTH,

Evo2.

mark_alfred · 04-01-2014, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_alfred

Hello. I'm using Ubuntu 13.10. During the install I indicated that I was from Canada, so I assumed the locale would be set to en_CA. But everything seems to be en_US (spelling wise). I'm thinking perhaps not many programs accommodate en_CA. Anyway, I'm wondering how I can change the locale (to change the program spellings) to en_GB.

Quote:

Originally Posted by widget

You never did say what you wanted.

Odd. I thought "I'm wondering how I can change the locale (to change the program spellings) to en_GB" was as clear as day. Oh well.

It's currently set to en_CA, but, as I said before, this still seems to default to en_US for many programs. Should I edit the /etc/default/locale file?

evo2 · 04-01-2014, 05:55 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_alfred

It's currently set to en_CA, but, as I said before, this still seems to default to en_US for many programs. Should I edit the /etc/default/locale file?

No, see my post.

Try reonfiguring debconf- you may have the front end set to "non-interactive". If so change it to something else. Eg dialog.

Evo2.

evo2 · 04-01-2014, 06:01 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_alfred

Odd. I thought "I'm wondering how I can change the locale (to change the program spellings) to en_GB" was as clear as day. Oh well.

many programs do not take notice of the LOCALE, so this may not help you much. For example emacs does not care if I use en_CA, en_UK or en_NZ, it still tries to use US (miss)spelling by default. I'm not aware of a general solution for all programs.

Evo2.

mark_alfred · 04-02-2014, 02:42 PM

Yeah, I just thought that more programs may notice en_GB (en_UK?) over en_CA. It's fine with some programs, but many others don't give the Canuck one much heed, so I thought perhaps Great Britain would gain more notice. Oh well, I'm not overly worried.